In the realm of antique Staffordshire pottery figures, mysteries abound. In preparing Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840, I thought I would go crazy trying to sort out the small figures of girls with baskets made by the "Sherratt" pot bank. As you see in the pair below, the girls' heads are different.

The girl facing right has a sleek head, while the girl facing left has a puffy head. Turns out that "Sherratt" made the girl looking to her left with no less than THREE different heads; and the girl facing right was made with two!

​Here is the girl facing right, and she has either a a sleek or puffy hairstyle.

And the girl facing left has either a tight cap, a puffy hairdo, or a puffy cap (no, it is not just the puffy head painted to look like a cap!)

These oddities are not so surprising and confirm two of my beliefs:

the "Sherratt" pot bank functioned over a great many years--the range of "Sherratt" figures is so enormous that this conclusion is hardly rocket-science!

that very many small figures, although designed to pair, were sold separately, so the buyer might buy either a single of a pair.

Given that I have recorded a reasonable number of single "Sherratt" basket girls, I thought the odds of finding a true pair were somewhere between remote and non-existent, but I got lucky recently when this twosome came up at auction.

As you see, they are a very true pair in that both seem to have been painted at the same time by the same hand. Note how the petals of the right hand flower have been painted on each--the quite unusual coloring was deliberate.

My husband is somewhat mystified as to why I had to buy this true pair, when we already own the enchanting little pair at the top of this blog article. I didn't try to explain! But don't let the existence of the lone true pair deter you from buying an assembled pair. My first pair has given me much pleasure, and if you assemble or buy your own pair you will love it too.

Antique Staffordshire pottery lions are so very English. You can quickly distinguish an early Staffordshire lion from a lion made in some other country because the modeling differs. English lions are human in an odd sort of way, and I find myself drawn to them. I was happy to come across this little pearlware lion this summer. He really is quite small, just around 5 inches high.

Nice, isn't he? He also happens to be an unrecorded model that can be attributed to the potter John Dale. Those floral clusters on the base are the give-away, as are the bocage flowers with twelve petals (six short petals alternating with six long).

There is, on the whole, a consistency in the style of each pot bank, and Dale is no exception. I find Dale figures second only to "Sherratt" in their appeal. That bright apple green that Dale favored is such a happy color, and the glaze is just right. Oddly, Dale made many of his felines with wide-open mouths painted red. You see that again on the tigers pulling the splendid Dale chariot below--and note the use of that bright apple green color on the base.

And you see the same gaping red mouth again on the Dale felines below--and yes, they both have apple-green bases.

Like the little lion, the big tiger immediately above has those distinctive Dale flowers on the base. And notice the distinctive tooling, sort of like teeth marks, on these bases. This is another Dale feature.

As I said, the little lion I discovered this summer is unrecorded, and I do wish I had found him before the publication of Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840. I have also since discovered in a private collection a small camel that can be attributed to Dale. He is a sweet little thing, probably also around 5 inches tall, and I know of no other like him. Note he has the same bocage leaves and flowers as the little lion.

Next year, I intend expanding my web site--or perhaps doing a completely new site--to illustrate the figures I have discovered since the publication of Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840. And I will be adding Pratt ware figures and color glazed figures to that site too. So if you have something that you would like included, please send it to me at myrna.schkolne@gmail.com.